1. Field Of The Invention
The present invention relates to an electrical card guide or connector for interconnecting printed circuit boards.
2. Description Of The Related Art
The connection of printed circuit boards at right angles using edge connectors is well known and extensively used in many applications. One common practice involves the use of an edge connector mounted on the main, busplane or mother board and connected to it by soldering. The other printed circuit board (PCB) or card, having printed strip connectors is inserted into an insertion slot in the connector so that the companion board or modular PCB is both mechanically and electrically connected to the busplane, main or mother board.
In other arrangements non-soldered contacts are embedded in the connector housing for engagement with mating contact pads on the busplane or mother board. In still other arrangements the connector housing may carry contacts which are mounted therein by friction fits. Usually the contacts are virtually completely housed or enclosed within the connector body. Usually speaking the manufacturing procedures necessary to manufacture such housings and assemble the contacts therein provide less than optimal simplicity, efficiency and cost effectiveness.
In the digital patching and switching equipment sector space and packaging limitations frequently present difficult problems with height being a major consideration. These space problems are usually dictated by various style industry standard connectors to allow cabling to the equipment. Once the connector style is determined and mounted on the rear of the equipment for cable access from other equipment, the designer is left with the problem of providing a means of making numerous electrical connections. Since the equipment chassis design normally uses as many modular plug-in PCB's as possible, accommodating the electrical connections in the remaining space can be physically difficult.
One possible arrangement for coping with these problems is to mount industry standard connectors on each modular plug-in PCB and provide so-called Zero Insertion Force card connectors along the bottom or top of the chassis on a busplane PCB to accommodate the additional electrical traces needed. This may be satisfactory if sufficient space is available within the chassis but frequently is not acceptable for two reasons; first, the height of the Zero Insertion Connector may be excessive as compared to the vertical space remaining; secondly, the connector incorporates a cam lever or slide that must be physically actuated by hand to close the connector contact points onto corresponding contact points on the modular PCB's. Access to these cam levers or slides within the equipment chassis itself becomes a problem which is further compounded when the chassis is mounted in a rack cabinet with other equipment chassis mounted above and below.